Pornography is one of the favorite bug-a-boos of the Holy Terrors.
Porn, they argue, is a "cancerous infection" which corrodes
family relationships, leads to sexual addictions, and desensitizes and
corrupts sexuality itself.

One of the most insidious things about porn is how itís so
pervasive. Nobody is safe from exposure and corruption.

ChristiaNet.com, which calls itself the worldís most visited
Christian portal, last month announced the results of a survey the
website conducted in partnership with Second Glance Ministries.
According to ChristiaNetís news release,
no one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive
behaviors. The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual
gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even
clergy. And, to the surprise of many, a large number of women in the
church have become victim to this widespread problem."

The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of
all Christian women are addicted to pornography,í said Clay Jones,
founder and President of Second Glance MinistriesÖ60% of the women
who answered the survey admitted to having significant struggles with
lust, 40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year,
and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle with looking
at pornography on an ongoing basis."

No wonder the Holy Terrors are up in arms. If this many true
believers are in the sway of pornís insidious clutches, we must be
in the grip of a porn pandemic.

But wait a minute. Donít saddle up the Four Horsemen just yet.

A closer look at the press release reveals the study and its
conclusions may not be all theyíre cracked up to be. In the first
place, it appears no attempt was made to ensure that the surveyís
participants were a random sampling, either of evangelicals or even of
visitors to the website. Visitors to the website were invited to
participate, and if they had five minutes to kill, they did it. That
makes the survey about as scientific as a Ouija board.

Secondly, the survey consisted only of eleven questions. The
conclusions that ChristiaNet and Second Glance Ministries drew from
the answers areÖ.creative.

Question #7: Is looking at pornography a sin in Godís eyes? Of
970 surveyed, 901 said yes. No surprise. Question #8: Have you ever
struggled with pornography? 100 women said "yes" of 507
questioned, and 229 men of 463 questioned also said "yes."
By answering "yes," the survey-takers were concluded to be
addicted to pornography, according to ChristiaNet and Second Glance
Ministries. No questions about how much money was spent annually on
porn, no questions about how many times a week a participant looked at
porn, nothing.

But wait. It gets better.

Question #3. Is masturbation a sin in Godís eyes? 744 of 970
participants (male and female) said yes. Question #4: Is masturbation
a part of your life? 127 women of 507 surveyed said "yes,"
and 190 men of 463 surveyed said, "yes." (One of the things
this response told me is that 273 of the men surveyed were lying on
this question).

Then we get to Question #6. "Have you ever taken part in a
sexual activity that is sin?" 263 women, more than half, and 304
men, about two thirds, answered yes" to that question. Sounds
like most of those polled have serious problems, right? Hide your
daughters and your barnyard animals, America.

But wait a minute. The overwhelming majority of those polled
consider masturbation and pornography to be a sin, so itís possible
that simply jacking (or jilling) off to a dirty magazine is all it
takes to condemn all these people to Hell, right?

Right?

The ultimate point of ChristiaNetís dingy little rest stop on the
information superhighway is to drive home one all-pervading, familiar
theme.

Pornography is bad.

Never mind all the evidence to the contrary.

From the time the first Cro-magnon man painted something on the
walls of the cave and the first Cro-magnon self-appointed moral
arbiter looked over his shoulder and said, "Hey! Those look like
boobs," the Powers That Be have been trying to abolish porn as
the cause of all evil in the world.

And yet, despite their efforts, the evidence that porn is actually
harmful is surprisingly slim.

In 1970, the "Nixon" Commission, first appointed by
Lyndon Johnson and then carried on by the Nixon Administration,
announced the results of a two-year study of the possible harmful
effects of pornography. The commissionís conclusion? "In sum,
empirical research designed to clarify the question has found no
evidence to date that exposure to explicit sexual materials plays a
significant role in the causation of delinquent or criminal behavior
among youth or adults. The Commission cannot conclude that exposure to
erotic materials is a factor in the causation of sex crime or sex
delinquency (pp. 27)."

As soon as the report came out, President Nixon denounced its
findings and launched plans to crack down on the immoral scourge.

Sixteen years later, President Ronald Reagan put together another
commission on pornography, dubbed the Meese Commission," after
then-Attorney General Edwin Meese, who chaired it. Six of the
commissionís eleven members had been known as anti-porn advocates.
The best thing that can be said about the commission is that they knew
which side their bread was buttered on. According to the Meese
Commission, exposure to pornographic images had a clear causal
relationship to sexual violence. What made the Meese Commissionís
scientific conclusions so profound is that the Commission drew those
conclusions without eliciting scientific testimony or examining
scientific evidence. They might as well have surveyed people on an
internet website.

So, despite all the political spinning of wheels, what adverse
effects might porn generate? In 1995, Berl Kuchinsky of the University
of Copenhagen published the results of his study of the effects of
pornography on the crime rates of four industrialized nations. Three
of those nations had liberal laws regarding access to porn, and the
fourth was the United States.

Dr. Kuchinskyís
findings are startling. In the three nations with liberal porn laws, the
Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, after ruling out all
other potential factors, over time there were dramatic DECREASES in
the rates of sex crimes over the course of more than two decades. In
the U.S., with relatively strict anti-porn laws, the rate of sex
crimes was substantially higher.

Just for kicks, I "googled" the terms
"pornography" and "harmful effects" and got more
than two and a half million hits. I reviewed some of the available
online literature, being as carefully scientific as ChristiaNetís
survey had been.

My conclusion? The evidence of pornís harmful effects appears to
be virtually entirely anecdotal. People tell stories about how porn
ruined their lives, and the stories are accepted as valid evidence.

Okay, I can play that game. My own conclusions? After having spent
most of my adult life watching, reviewing, critiquing and studying
porn, not to mention sharing it with my Lovely Wife, itís turned us
both into adventurous, enthusiastic, passionate, slightly kinky
sex-crazed maniacs.

About the Author:† J.T.Benjamin says, "I'm a generalist. I write about
what interests me, which is just about everything." His resume reflects the diversity of
his interests. He's been a disk jockey, insurance salesman, private investigator, journalist,
college professor, child advocate, political activist, truckdriver, thief,...doctor, lawyer,
Indian Chief. He's currently trying to start a hippie commune in the Denver/Boulder area.
Email:† J.T. Benjamin